Gripla - 20.12.2011, Page 89

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A further example, from Remigius of Auxerre’s (ca. 841–ca. 908)
Commentarius in Genesim, shows very well what use medieval Christian
authors actually made of their knowledge of the physical world. Remigius’
rainbow is again of the two-colour allegorical type:
Arcus duos habet colores, ex parte caeruleum et ex parte igneum;
per hoc designantur duo diluvia: unum aquae, quod jam praeteriit,
aliud ignis, quod in fine saeculi venturum creditur. Unde caeruleus
color extrinsecus cernitur, igneus vero intrinsecus. Mystice arcus,
qui fit sole nube illustrata, significat eum a diluvio, id est, ab aeterna
damnatione posse salvari qui verum solem Christum nube conspe-
xerit, hoc est, qui ejus passionem et resurrectionem per prophetas
praedictam crediderit.58
“The rainbow has two colours, blue on one side and fiery on the
other; by this, two floods are meant: one of water, which is already
past; the other of fire, which is believed to come at the end of the
world: for this reason, the blue colour is placed externally, while the
fiery-red internally. In a mystic sense, the rainbow, which is formed
by a cloud enlightened by the sun, signifies that men, who will have
seen the true sun Christ in the cloud, that is, who will have believed
in His passion and resurrection as foretold by prophets, can be
saved from the flood, i.e., from eternal damnation.”
The same two-colour allegory of the rainbow – with no mystic inter-
pretation, though – is also found in the so-called Glossa ordinaria, which
was extensively appreciated as a school text in the Middle Ages;59 as well
as in Bruno of Segni’s (between 1045 and 1049–1123) Expositio in Genesim,
where first the rainbow’s consolatory function for men is underlined,60
and then it is stated that “because the world first was judged by water, and
58 Cf. Remigius Antissiodorensis, Commentarius in Genesim, 9, in PL 131, col. 78 BC.
59 Cf. PL 113, col. 111 D: Arcus duos habet colores, caeruleum et igneum, qui duo judicia exprimunt:
unum aquae quod praeteriit; aliud ignis, quod venturum creditur in fine saeculi: unde caeruleus
color extrinsecus, igneus vero intrinsecus. “The rainbow has two colours, blue and fiery-red,
which signify two judgements: one of water, which is past; the other of fire, which is
believed to come at the end of the world: for this reason, the blue colour is external, while
the fiery-red internal”.
60 Cf. Bruno Astensis, Expositio in Genesim, IX, in PL 164, cols. 184 D-185 A.
THE RAINBOW ALLEGORY